I’m hearing from the priests … that we not rush headlong into further translations and using the Roman Missal that we have now in its English version as the basis …

Bishop Matano of Burlington, Vermont:

I do think it is a bit counter-productive to go back in time and give a critique of the new Roman Missal.

USCCB votes 189-41 to move on to the Liturgy of the Hours.

Granted, there were speeches behind these comments, but let’s ponder some possibilities:

The bishops don’t care what their priests think, so what possibly could make anyone believe they are listening to lay people?

The bishops are tired talking about liturgy. They just want the MC to turn the page and point.

Twenty-seven bishops seemed to have changed their minds after the California intervention. But three bishops woke up and voted the second time who didn’t cast a ballot the first.

Is the curia thinking, “Thank goodness we have those Americans under our thumb. Now, what the bleep are we going to do with the Germans?”

Where does Father John “Slavish” Z fit in the notion that once a translation is complete, complaining about it “only opens the door to … disunity.”? I suppose it depend on if the Culture of Complaint is in its ascendancy or not.

PS: Nice work guys, on the economy. Four years into a depression and you can’t agree on a word of faith and hope. Do us a favor and don’t bother sending one out next time.

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About catholicsensibility

Todd lives in the Pacific Northwest, serving a Catholic parish as a lay minister.

“Bishops break out in shingles in the face of ambiguity; laity live with it each day in their homes, jobs and social life.

Chancery offices constantly view the faithful as so befuddled that, without unctuous instruction, they would confuse the holy water fountain with a birdbath.”

I wonder if the Catholic bishops could stop trying to indoctrinate everybody else to think the way they think and start trying to persuade people instead. Or would it endanger their self-concept as the supposed successors of the apostles for them to stop trying to indoctrinate everybody else and start trying to persuade people instead?

For the Catholic bishops, debate among equals is acceptable for Catholic bishops to engage in with other Catholic bishops. So if in principle the Catholic bishops can allow other Catholic bishops to engage in debate with them, then perhaps they could use this admittedly limited experience of debate among bishops as a model that they could follow in engaging in debate with non-bishops, or at least in attempting to engage in debate with non-bishops.